noun
- a frame or stand on which a corpse or the coffin containing it is laid before burial.
- such a stand together with the corpse or coffin.
noun
- a platform or stand on which a corpse or a coffin containing a corpse rests before burial
Old English bær (West Saxon), ber (Anglian) “handbarrow, litter, bed,” from West Germanic *bero (cf. Old Saxon, Old High German bara, Old Frisian bere, Middle Dutch bare, Dutch baar, German Bahre “bier”), from PIE root *bher- (1) “to carry; to bear children,” and thus related to the Old English verb beran “to bear” (see bear (v.)), making a bier etymologically anything used for carrying, only later limited to funerary sense. Since c.1600, spelling influenced by French bière, from Old French biere, from Frankish *bera, from the same Germanic root.